ON SAINT PETER
BISHOP OF PAVIA IN ITALY.
ABOUT DCCXXXVIII.
CommentaryPetrus, Bishop of Pavia, in Italy (S.)
By the author G. H.
[1] The tables of the present Roman Martyrology on this VII of May celebrate S. Peter, Bishop of Pavia. The same celebrate Galesinius in his Martyrology, Cultus. and with some elogium Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. But chiefly his age nearest Paul the Deacon, Warnefred the Lombard's son, book 6 on the Deeds of the Lombards chapter 58 or of the whole history the last, where these things he has.
[2] At that time also flourished in life and acts of the Pavian church the Bishop Peter: who because of the King was a kinsman, Elogium from Paul the Deacon. by Aripert once King at Spoleto into exile was thrust. To him, the blessed Martyr Sabinus's church frequenting, the same venerable Martyr foretold, that a Bishop at Pavia future he would be. Who afterward when this had been done, a basilica to the same blessed Martyr Sabinus on his own seat, at the same city, he constructed. He, among the rest of the best life which he had virtues, also with virginity's flower adorned shone: of whom we some miracle, which in a later time was done, in its own place will put. Thus Paul the Deacon, who whether of a later time the deeds by writing he attained, we know not: that certain which exists history thither does not reach. To this most ancient writer we adjoin the most recent John Baptist de Gasparis, who published with his name kept silent, and to us in the year MDCLXII at Pavia being donated, a Breviary of the Life of the Saints of the Pavian Church's Bishops, whose birthday by the same holy Pavian Church under a double rite to be celebrated in the Preface he indicates, The Office under a double rite. and of S. Peter the first, the XXXVI Bishop of Pavia, by a long inquiry from several writers gathered the following.
[3] Peter the first, of Pavia, of the royal Lombard stock born, by blood a Bavarian, a youth to Aripert the second King of the Lombards into suspicion came: by whom also into Etruria relegated, An exile he venerates S. Sabinus: most patiently the exile's hardships in the Arezzo territory he sustained. There on a little hill's ridge consecrated to the divine Martyr Sabinus he frequented the temple. Wherefore withdrawing himself from men's fellowship, wholly himself to contemplation and the spirit's devotion he gave. Sometimes by the Martyr Sabinus's apparitions recreated, at length by the same himself to be a future Bishop of Pavia he is admonished. Of inviolate most observant chastity, innocence he obtained and grace: for Aripert being dead in the year seven hundred sixteenth, and in the same year his successor Asprandus Peter's cousin from human things being taken, Luitprand by the royal scepter was augmented, of the same Peter a kinsman: to the same returned he constructs basilicas: by whom with admirable of the city's applause from exile into his fatherland recalled, according to S. Sabinus's foretelling Bishop of Pavia created, basilicas two, one at Pavia, the other indeed near the walls to the same Martyr Sabinus he built, which also with the greatest gifts he augmented. Of this holy man, not yet the Bishopric bearing, by the work and exhortation, in the year seven hundred twenty-sixth in S. Armentarius's Pontificate, the same Luitprand the King from Sardinia the island the body of S. Augustine, of the Catholic Church the light, at a great price redeemed, to Pavia to be translated took care. Of the tranquility of the Roman church a notable lover, with skillful zeal he persuaded, that the same King from an enemy should become of the Christian religion a fosterer, and of the Roman Pontiff above all zealous. Very many infidel Princes, in war captured, with the sacred wave he dipped. he dies in the year of his Episcopate 13. But when for thirteen years the Bishopric most religiously he had borne, on the Nones of May by death
he was snatched away, in the year seven hundred forty-third, illustrious for miracles. His body, in S. John of the Marsh, or (as now it is called) in the Borgo, placed, with the highest veneration is held.
[4] Thus far those Acts, in which S. Peter is said relegated into the Arezzo territory of Etruria: Who was that S. Sabinus? which follow Stephen Breventanus, Bernard Saccus, James Gualla, and other writers of the Pavian History, asserting there a little town, by fame conspicuous, commonly called the mount of S. Sabinus: whom the townsmen as their Patron venerate on December VII, judging him to have been Bishop of Chiusi and a Martyr. But on the same day also is venerated S. Sabinus, Bishop of Spoleto and Martyr: and by others one and the same is held, to whom by S. Peter Bishop of Pavia a temple constructed is reported to have been, hands down at the said day Ferrarius. Paul the Deacon says, this one at Spoleto into exile was thrust. Perhaps the Duchy of the Lombards of Spoleto he understands, in which enclosed seem the cities of Perugia and Arezzo with their territories. The rest to the Acts of S. Sabinus will have to be discussed. But how many basilicas to S. Sabinus erected S. Peter, not sufficiently agree among the authors. Paul the Deacon makes mention of one on his own seat (perhaps on his own soil) at the Pavian city constructed: where were basilicas constructed to him? Adds James Gualla, near the walls and the Ticino river on the Eastern part, which afterward in the year MDXXV, Francis the King of the Gauls the same city with a great army besieging, was overthrown. Ughellus volume I of Italia sacra in the Bishops of Pavia says, to the same a temple erected in a square, to which S. Sabinus's name was given: and so basilicas two to S. Sabinus built hands down above John Baptist de Gasparis.
[5] The Epitaph of his sepulchre. The Epitaph of his sepulchre from Jano Gruter in the said Breviary reprinted, is of this kind.
White on the funereal marble are carved the deeds: But not to be wept is he who lies in the tomb. Let the unhappy mourn, who knows not to live for Christ, Whom after his dear death the depths of hell retain. This Prophet of the Lord, because in the world with body he lived, Joined rejoices with the Angelic companies. Shone here by his honest merits Peter the Bishop, The norm of Priests, an excellent pillar. Munificent, constant, skillful, and prudent, modest, Who in innumerable always excels everywhere with good things. Renowned by lineage, and the Kings' stemmas touching; Noble in eloquence, in manners nobler. He by a foreign at length wasted life, Twice five years exiled blameless. Hunger and thirst he suffers, while also colds his body, In hope, virtue, faith his spirit was increased. But seeking again his native soil, pious offices he bore, He presided over the church, ruled the sheepfold of God. He the sacred halls of the Lord founding liberally, Enriched with his own most excellently the lands. Lofty, humble, middling, rich, needy, There fell our Pastor lo excellent. With laments immense crying out weep your grief: The light of the fatherland fell, the law, honor and ornament. O venerable Father, good Pastor, great Priest, Form of chastity, O Father excellent: You have changed your fatherland, leaving our fellowships, Us only groans retain, you the joys of heaven. Ten lustra being completed in your mortal body, With these four joined you lived firmly years.
[6] his age. As to chronology, it from the Lombards' deeds, with the Epitaph collated, is to be arranged. To be known therefore that Cunibert the King, about the year DCCVI dead, succeeding his little son Lintbert; eight after his father's death month, together with his guardian Asprand, expelled by Ragumbert, the Duke of Turin, the vacant in the same year by the invader's death kingdom in vain to recover endeavoring out of the hands of the son of Aripert, vanquished at Pavia and seized was, Asprand by flight slipped away, and at length into Bavaria betaking himself. By this occasion Peter into exile driven, not before into his fatherland returned, than the kingdom obtained Asprand: which in the year at length of Aripert the tenth done is written, nor ill into the year of Christ DCCXVIII is referred. Perhaps however not ill Bernard Saccus the restitution of Peter to Luitprand attributes, because his father Asprand months only three in the kingdom lived. But how long after these times private lived Peter is unknown; if however for thirteen years to have borne the Bishopric be proved, from the year of life LIV in which he died, and that which is fitting to have had age, of years at the least XXIV when driven into exile he was, easily you may conclude not more than five or six years to have flowed from his return, before he was made Bishop; and so beyond the year of Christ DCCXXXVIII the life to him hardly to be prolonged can be.
[7] Adds de Gasparis, that, the Bishopric thirteen years being borne, to the highest Pontiff elected, but by death he was snatched away: which because no one else has said, nor do I see on what foundation it rests, to expunge from the elogium I preferred, The Roman Pontificate to him wrongly ascribed. and here to note. For neither after Gregory II's death, who in the year DCCXV ordained, died DCCXXXI; nor after the departure of Gregory III, who after him ten years sat, those were the times, that from the Lombards, by whom then most the Romans were vexed, a Pontiff for themselves they would wish to elect; much less appears verisimilar, that the Roman Clergy, of Episcopal Sees' translations always averse where it could, itself for itself an example of that matter first to set would wish in this Peter, which after a century and a half first seen in Formosus, before Bishop of Porto, so great at Rome tragedies excited, as great the Pontiffs' history after his death narrates. Moreover when I consider, how in the year DCCCCXIV Peter Bishop of Pavia, of Otto the Emperor Chancellor, to the Pontificate assumed, and John called of that name XIV, after eight in that office months in the Castle of S. Angelo by hunger killed on the XX of August; I am compelled to fear, lest by the likeness of name carried away de Gasparis, ascribed to Peter of this name the First, what of the third of that appellation Bishop of Pavia he had read.